[Report 1921] / Medical Officer of Health, County Council of the Palatine of Chester / Cheshire County Council.

  • Cheshire County Council
Date:
1921
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1921] / Medical Officer of Health, County Council of the Palatine of Chester / Cheshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    1 have recognised for some time that 1 cannot hope to do this branch of my work justice for there are literally hundreds of potential soui’ces of pollution, some of which require watching night and day if we are to preserve the natural beauty and purity of some of our best rivers and streams. I have drawn attention in the text of this Report to a number of other matters of local and general interest, particu- larly to the problems of cancer, venereal disease and birth- control. Professor Win. T. Sedgwick, of Massachusetts, a few years ago wrote the following words in the preface to his book on the Principles of Sanitary Science and Public Health ;— “Public hygiene and state medicine have become subjects com- pelling the attention of statesmen and ahecting the welfare of nations. Sanitary law has been endowed with unusual privileges and powers and sanitary regulations controlling the commerce of the civilized world are debated in international congresses. Sanitary science and preventive medicine—terms practically unknown before this century—have become almost household words. Sanitary arts of great range and import- ance have grown up ; vast sums are annually spent for private and especially for public sanitation : and human life has been made safer, longer and probably happier.” The oroad principles thus enunciated are apt to become obfuscated by the daily cloud of peppercorn details. It is wisdom to take one’s eye from the microscope- once in a while and adjust one’s focus to the wider prospect. One gets a momentary qualm when the numerous forms of what the Poor Law Commission termed “public assistance” which are now within the legitimised range of a Public Health Authority are considered. During recent years such Authorities have been enabled by legislation—and most Authorities have cheerfully undertaken the responsibility—to assist out of public funds schemes providing for aid in maternity, infant and child welfare, the feeding and medical treatment of school chikh-en,
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